Dr Ijeoma Kola is the perfect definition of a queen hustler and as the first guest of the OVAReact Podcast, she sets the pace of the basis of the show and brings to life how most women globally who not only work their 9 to 5 which they often love the balance it out with hustles which also feed into other aspects of what they enjoy doing. Ijeoma whose current role is the Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Notre Dame, is also an incredible content creator with a huge following, in addition, because of her educational background as a PhD student she founded Cohort Sistas of which she is the Executive Director to help other black women who are pursuing their doctorate. Lastly, in conjunction with wanting to use her platform to connect with other women, she is the CEO and mastermind of Safe Journey Retreat which launched its first event this January in 2022.
The episode with Ijeoma will help listeners who are in the same boat as her or even those who wish to add hustling opportunities identify how to figure out what to actually focus on. Here are 3 things that you will learn from Ijeoma’s story.
How to use your journey
At times who we are is shaped by our experiences and those experiences can be the unique selling factor that helps shape your next business idea. The fact that Ijeoma was pursuing a doctorate she saw the gap in black women studying to PhD level, they often lacked mentorship, resources and a community. So this gave birth to Cohort Sistas and is the sole reason why they exist.
Make time to self-reflect
Most of us navigate through life without taking the time to sit and reflect on what we have achieved and what steps we need to take to move on forward. Ijeoma’s journey of creating the Safe Journey Retreat will lead you to appreciate how when you make time to self-reflect you will be able to silence the outside noises and be able to hear the still voice from within offering you the guidance of the next step.
Identify the board of directors in your life
Ijeoma’s life is surrounded by supportive members in her life and as you listen to her journey of juggling her hustles and her full-time job, it is important to highlight that you must equally have the right people around you. Just as organisations have a Board of Directors hired with the intent of supporting the purpose of the organisation you too must ask yourself who are the directors in your life that you have selected to help you shape up as you navigate through life and find the best way to juggle everything that lands on your plate.
Learn more about Ijeoma’s entrepreneurship journey by listening to her episode in full via SoundCloud, Apple, Spotify, Google Podcast and Anchor FM. Don’t forget to tune in next Monday at 10.30 pm on Capital FM to listen to the next queen hustler featured.
Entrepreneurship comes with trial and error, what the journey has entailed for our founders!